© Jonathan Brockbank, Department of English, University of York
From Roman time to the seventeenth century York was an important military and administration centre, the unofficial capitol of the north. These virtual tours take you through some of the expected and unexpected highlights of the history of York and their intersection with their contemporary culture. The tours are divided into sections that correspond to areas of study in the Department of English and Related Literature, York.
Map of the Went valley in the vicinity of the Great North Road. | |
The Went Valley. Sayle’s Plantation is on this side of the river on the far side of the bridge. The AI now vaults the obstacle on a high concrete fly-over. The numerous nettles that enjoy this setting sting rich and poor indiscriminately… |
St Mary’s Abbey, north wall. |
St Mary’s tower and wall, Marygate. |
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, was lord of the manor of Knaresborough until 1399. His descendents included Henry IV, Henry V and Henry VI, who succeeded after Henry IV’s deposition of Richard II started the events that would lead to the Cousins’ War (War of the Roses). |
In the spring and May of 1469 armed lawbreakers caused trouble in Yorkshire during the run up to the second phase of the Cousin’s War. Significantly the name ‘Robin Hood’ was sufficiently famous for the leaders of both outbreaks to call themselves ‘Robin’, ‘Robin of Redesdale’ and ‘Robin of Holderness’ respectively. The evidence is confusing but it is likely these ‘Robins’ were knights inciting local discontent about Edward IV’s taxes under orders from Robert Neville, Earl of Warwick. (Wagner pps 234-5).
Nonetheless the knight of the Geste ‘Sir Richard of Lee’ (‘Sir Rychard at the Lee’ The Fourth Fytte, Stn 310) is the hardest person for proponents of the ballad’s historical accuracy to identify. His ‘fayre castell’, which is ‘double-dyched’, (The Fifth Fytte, Stn 309) compounds the problem. Double moated castles are rare; the most prominent example in Yorkshire is Helmsley Castle.
Standing on the edge of the North York Moors, it would not have been handy as a refuge for outlaws fleeing an archery contest in Nottingham (The Fifth Fytte, Stn 289). In the late middle ages Helmsley Castle was bought by Richard Duke of Gloucester. The double ditches are prominent in this air view.
According to another ballad from the Percy collection, Robin died at Kirklees Priory, treacherously bled to death by the prioress, a kinswoman of his:
And first it bled, the thicke, thicke bloode,
And afterwards the thinne,
And well then wist good Robin Hoode
Treason there was within.
(Child 120 A, stanza,17)
Sadly this ballad is fragmented. It has one of the most ominous build-ups of the genre but we never find out who the ‘old woman’ was or why she ‘was banning’ [cursing] Robin Hood. Robin Hood and Little John, the ‘two bolde children’ [men] who ‘shotten’ [‘travel’?] together seem to reach the division between this world and the next:
They two bolde children shotten together,
All day theire selfe in rank,
Until they came to the blacke water,
And over it laid a planke.
Vpon it there kneeled an old woman,
Was banning Robin Hoode;
‘Why dost thou bann Robin Hoode?’ said Robin,
……………………..
(Child 120 A, stanzas,7/8)
Disappointingly all the sites associated with Robin’s death, the gatehouse of Kirklees Priory, where he is supposed to have died and his grave are on private land.